...What the Heck has Internet Done to Our Brains? Section I: Introduction and Context Imagine going back in time and staying there permanently. Out of all the things that will be missed, there is no doubt that the one thing would be technology. The Shallows: What Internet is Doing to Our Brains is nonfiction book written by Nicholas Carr who asserts and cautions the effects that internet has on everyone to this day and even more so in the future. People nowadays can communicate with people all around the world using many different types of communications such as social networking sites, cell phones, emails, etc. Carr brings in many different scientific research as well as a couple of personal experiences to show the great change in technology and the internet. The author chose to write The Shallows from an epiphany he had realized, “It (his brain) was hungry. It was demanding to be fed by the net feed...I wanted to check email, click links, do some googling. I wanted to be connected” (Carr 16). The way that technology has changed and developed the internet has made Carr want to stress the fact that although technology is very useful, it can be very harmful to peoples’ brain in a way that it affects a person’s deeper level of thinking. Section II:The Author’s Background Nicholas Carr is a columnist, member of the Encyclopedia Britannica's editorial board of advisors, as well as an executive editor. Carr writes about technology, culture, and economics which have made his books...
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...Alphabets, number systems, clocks, and maps is the single most mind-twisting way of learning online as seen in the Shallows by Nicholas Carr.”With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind alterning technology that has come into general use” (Carr, pg. 116). The rise of technology is starting to peak and grow every single day of our lives.”The machine metaphor was extended, and further reinforced, by the arrival of the digital computer- a thinking machine- in the middle of the twentieth century” (Carr, pg. 23). This is showing the midpoint of technology. Technology has almost reached the rising point in the twentieth century. The web currently has been able to quickly access search engines.”...
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...Digital Media: A Better Way to Learn Educators and parents have legitimate concerns about the effects of the Digital Age on learning. Digital media has changed dramatically since the development of the Internet and improvement of wireless technology. John Palfrey, Professor of Law and Urs Gasser, Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, both employed by the prestigious Harvard Law School, have written about how the world has been reshaped because of this new digital world in Born Digital. They found that this period “is the most rapid period of technological transformation ever, at least, when it comes to information” (3). This transformation of digital media over the last twenty-five years and the introduction of tools like the iPad create a clutter of information that threaten the ability to think deeply and concentrate, which has made the current educational system obsolete and ineffective. This same technology can be utilized to create the school of the future, by improving learning in the Digital Age. Digital natives, ”born after 1980,” do not know the world without the Internet, cell phones, computers, tablets and everything else that networked digital technology has provided (Palfrey 1). They “study, work, write and interact with each other in ways that are very different from the ways” their parents and grandparents grew up. (Palfrey 2). Palfrey and Gasser found that digital natives are comfortable with this new technology and experts...
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...directs every aspects of their living. While digital technology was intended to bring people closer, it has only served to push them further apart. And as it was intended to enhance knowledge, it has highly diminished the quality and nature of our thinking. In reality, it is constricting rather than expanding the horizon for human nature in social and cognitive processing. Digital media has changed how people think about themselves, relationships, and the sense of being human. Virtual interactions may make people feel good and secure but it leaves them diminished in a human sense. According to Turkle (11), it has eroded the ability of people to live comfortably offline. People feel out of place during face-to face interactions and there is a great sense of loss when one loses their phones or computer. Relationships between parents, friends, siblings and the community have significantly changed. People deal with members of their immediate family in the same way they deal with people online. There is no special connection between them. People text at dinner with their families or while driving. A high level of commitment and attention is given to digital devices such that children get less attention from their parents who are always doing something on their phone or computer while attending to them. The virtual digital world leads to isolation which...
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...In Nick Carr’s book; The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Carr talks about instrumentalism and how the world views technology. According to both David Sarnoff and James Carey “technology is technology”. This is the most widely held view of technology today that I also agree with. Both Sarnoff and Carey downplay technology and argue compelling arguments against the over exaggerated power people give to it. In Carr’s book, instrumentalists are described as “the people who, like David Sarnoff, downplay the power of technology, believing tools to be neutral artifacts, entirely subservient to the conscious wishes of their users.” The name instrumentalist itself describes their view; that technology is just an instrument used to help one exceed in their abilities. There is also historic evidence that points to the instrumentalist’s outlook. For example; the Japanese preserved their traditional samurai culture by banning the use of firearms in their country for two centuries and this proved to be affective! Another example used in Carr’s book is North America. The religious community for the Amish rejected the use of motor cars and other modern technologies. It seems all throughout history many different cultures have shied away or put some kind of restrictions on the use of certain tools. It all is not a foreign concept and has proved successful. So why should it be any different in this case, we are not any better than our ancestors or our history! This leads people...
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...The Shallows Response I found this article very interesting and true on some aspects About our language. I also learned a few things one thing being that the Greeks were the first to invent the phonetic alphabet. I never put too much thought into who created it or where the alphabet came from but reading this article made my mind drift off into wonderland and I was in awe, thinking “geez if it wasn’t for them then I wouldn’t be able to read today!” I thought the comparison to the phonetic and logographic language done by Tufts University was interesting, because the frontal lobe is very important to processing memory, it reminded me of text messaging and this emoji craze. We use pictures now instead of words to describe what’s going on in our day to day lives. They stated how logographic language activates or triggers a response in motoric memory skills, I see why the Chinese are so smart. I could not agree more with Theuth about writing when he said (“it will make the people of Egypt wiser and improve their memories” for it “provides a recipe for memory and wisdom”)pg54 In my opinion he was speaking the significance of writing into existence. For me writing is the only way that I can remember things. When it comes to homework and test assignments I find myself scoring higher because I took notes or rewrote words I didn’t know the meaning to. I also give the same advice to my daughter, who is in fourth grade, I make her rewrite her spelling words three times and it never...
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...Davon Daniels English 1500 Professor Robertson 8/8/13 How the Internet is affecting you and your community In today’s society who doesn’t use Computers? Almost everyone in today’s culture uses a computer in some shape or fashion. Computers are used so often now in society that they are even made into devices to be used on the go such as iPhones, tablets, and laptops. With a rise in the use of computers means that people are also using the internet more often. Frequent use of the internet can have positive and negative effects on a person and a community. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr he explains the many effects the internet can have on people. In Carr’s article “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he introduces the idea how the internet is changing our lives by making us mentally process information differently from the past, based off previous changes in history. Carr explains how we think less deeply and rely on quick facts, versus using critical thinking and research. Also he explains how our brain is flexible, and may be changed by the internet’s impression. Lastly Carr talks about what the internet may become in the future, and how it could make us more like computers. He elaborates on how we only have to ask a question and there isn’t any lengthy research, becoming like a pancake. Since on the internet we gain a lot of spread out information, but not in depth knowledge on the specific topics, becoming spread out and thin intellectually...
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...long ago, people were seen doing stuffs that have turned out to be more of a routine in today’s humankind. Every single day a new type of technology is been introduced in today's world. So, the question arises that is theses changes necessary in today's world? If yes, does it have a good or a bad impact to the human society in today's world? We need to talk about in which approach hi-tech advancements that pace into our daily lives have altered our lifestyles in the very last few centuries. In today’s world each and every single people rely on new and advance technologies. Everyone loves new technologies and gadgets that promise innovative and better ways of living. A pace of life is frequently increasing with the increase in new technologies. Nowadays somewhat more a quarter of the earth’s population can be found in the industrialized societies. And half of the population still lives on past agriculture, but they are also relying on machines. The remaining of the world’s population, however, is no longer of either the past or the present. They live in the future, within the most important centers of cultural and technological change, in New York, California, Cambridge, London and Tokyo (Toffler, p. 38). A new part of technology is like a new relationship to an individual, it will be cool and thrilling at the first, but sooner or later it gets addictive to the people. I doubt technology’s give your word to improve the quality of life, makes our life easier and simpler, but...
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...The Shallows Passage that conveys Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, or Tone Pg. # Commentary utilizing DIDLS and Appeals “The computer, I began to sense, was more than just a simple tool that did what you told it to do. It was a machine that , in subtle but unmistakable ways exerted an influence over you. The more I used it, the more it altered the way I worked...I found I could no longer write or revise anything on paper. I felt lost without the Delete key, the scrollbar, the cut and paste functions, the Undo command. I had to do all my editing on-screen. In using a word processor, I had become something of a word processor myself.” 13 In the prologue, the speaker, already starts to be suspicious of what the internet may be doing to him. Creating a foreboding tone as he starts to realize, that there may be more to the internet than what he first thought. He then starts to feel detached from what he was before, to the new person he was becoming because of the internet. After soon realizing this, he starts to...
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...How Technology has Affected Our Lives Technology has certainly changed the lives of many people in today’s world. According to several reviews, as well as several books written by Nicholas Carr tend to point us in the direction of the technology not being such a good thing. While there are many forms of technology that are used for many different things such as: digital TV, social networking, cellular phones, notebooks, laptops, personal computers and the list goes on are they taking us away from the realities of life? Many sources or authors have their versions of how the different technology has made improvements in our lives; as well as how they are making us think and do a lot less than we used to. The internet makes getting information on any subject so easy for us that sometimes we tend not to do the work, or research that is needed to fully understand what we are doing; instead we follow the instructions and if we need it again we go through the same process without ever learning how to complete the task. This is just the beginning of how technology changes our lives and perhaps we get things done, but are we really learning? This is the question that we hope to answer along the way. There are many ways in which technology has in fact changed lives; the first concern that will be addressed is the way in which technology mainly electronic media has caused changes to occur. When we think of electronic media for this purpose we will focus on television, computers...
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...abuse in the home. Peers, educators, legislators and others should take the time to help not only the child who is suffering but also the parent. There should be counsellors in the schools who specialize in these situations and other organizations to help the parents. We as students can take the time and write letters and articles to newspapers and legislators to help our friend, relative or just another human being who is suffering, rather than just to talk about the issues. Innocent children should not be victims of child abuse. ? ______________________________________________________________________ Express Your Individuality We are all so different and unique it is a miracle we all get along as we do. May not be the best at times but hey, we are human right. Our individuality is what makes us so diverse. I give props to the people who step outside of that “norm” of following what others want you to do. So you wear clothes you shouldn’t or dress how others view as inappropriate, and the point is? The fact of the matter is it is your body; you are the ones wearing the clothes, so what if people don’t accept that, it is not the end of the world. Those who have a problem with how you look or dress probably do or did the same thing at a time in their life. We spend too much time looking at others when we should really be...
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...show you how to get out of this trap – if you are not already too deeply in it. of what we are designed to handle. This leads to great risk and to inappropriate, outright dangerous behavior. In the past few decades, the fortunate among us have recognized the hazards of living with an overabundance of food (obesity, diabetes) and have started to shift our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body. News is easy to digest. The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking. That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike reading books and long, deep magazine articles (which requires thinking), we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, like bright-colored candies for the mind. Today, we have reached the same point in relation to information overload that we faced 20 years ago in regard to food intake. We are beginning to recognize how toxic news can be and we are learning to take the first steps toward an information diet. This is my attempt to clarify the toxic dangers of news – and to recommend some ways to deal with it. I have now gone without news for a year, so I can see, feel and report the effects of this freedom first hand: less disruption, more time, less anxiety, deeper thinking, more insights. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. News is to the mind what sugar is to the body We are so well informed and yet we know so little. Why? We are...
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...I am long overdue on a review of this book, which I feel bad about because I really enjoyed it. Maybe I didn’t get to it because I was too busy multitasking… First off, this is written as a business novel. Lately, I have been really weary about business novels. For one, I’m not a novel reader and, since The Goal, the only business novels I’ve liked and gotten through are SHORT ones, including All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe’s Garage: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple and The Ice Cream Maker: An Inspiring Tale About Making Quality The Key Ingredient in Everything You Do (my review here). This book, written by business coach Dave Crenshaw, tackles the idea of “multitasking” — that we can do two things at once. If you think about multitasking from a Lean perspective, you might think about the practices of Standardized Work. In a factory, standardized work assumes a person can really only do one thing at a time. At most, you might reach for a part with your left hand while simultaneously reaching for a tool with your right. But, this is a relatively simple task that, in a repetitive manufacturing environment, can be done without thinking and through a lot of muscle memory. In professional settings, we often trick ourselves into thinking we can multitask. While on conference calls, people play Minesweeper or surf the web. This works, except for when you realize you haven’t been listening or someone calls on you and you can’t answer — it’s embarrassing...
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...thoughts, not to mention their physical features, to an unbelievably wide audience. For the first time in human history, a technology exists that gives us the ability to do so; society knows this technology as the Internet (Siegel, 2009). Many individuals may argue that the Internet providing such convenience and mediums for connectivity to society is a blessing. A different perspective is seen in the book, “Against the Machine: How the Web Is Reshaping Culture and Commerce and Why It Matters.” Author Lee Siegel argues that the Internet is “obscurely a curse” (Siegel, 2009) in that “more and more people are able to live in a more comfortable and complete self-enclosure than ever before (Siegel, 2009).” This paper argues that the Internet is both a blessing and a curse with regards to Siegel’s aforementioned statement. The argument will be supported through the notions that: the Internet creating a global network society versus the digital divide, through the customization of information and through a shared sense of community, and elimination of diversity. Global Network Society vs. Digital Divide The Internet has given society the ability to connect with people over substantial geographical boundaries. However, the areas that are deprived of Internet accessibility are, and will continue to fall behind with respect to...
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...Jodi Arias Articles These are some of the essays that I have written about the Jodi Arias trial. Many more to come. JODI ARIAS TRIAL: SECOND EXPERT WITNESS, ALYCE LAVIOLETTE UNDER SCRUTINY Alyce LaViolette is the second expert witness called by the defense in the Jodi Arias trial. Ms. LaViolette has a Masters degree and has worked since the 1970s in the field of domestic violence. She has been described by some as being a man hater. For instance, attorney and radio host Jenny Hutt, in her appearance on the Dr. Drew show, referred to Ms. LaViolette’s testimony in the following way: “I feel like she`s just a man hater…she`s clearly prejudicial, and she just reads that she doesn`t like men.” This criticism, valid or invalid, is also present in professional critiques, couched using terms such as “feminist perspective” and even extends to the personal reviews that can be found on Amazon.com. One reviewer, asked the question “did she ever meet a man who was not an abuser?” Obviously, the impression of Ms. LaViolette, as being a man hater, is legitimate in the minds of many people. She has left that impression with many readers and viewers of her work. This is not to say that Ms. LaViolette is a man hater, just because a number of people think her so. That would be unfair. It would be fair to say this. Her behavior, her writing, her court testimony, has left a significant number of people with the impression that she is a man hater. I don’t know if she is a man...
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